I’ve always been really passionate about painting and drawing, and when younger, these were disciplines I practiced quite often. Then (as with many of my generation and forward) the computer happened and the only “paint” I used was part of Microsoft’s software. Now after many years, I find myself wanting to return to those roots. This in part thanks to other designers that have inspired me to want to incorporate different mediums in to my work, such as Michael Cina for example, who in my opinion has proven that all of these disciplines can coexist within a designer and become part of a coherent (not that it has to be) body of work.

As I venture deeper in to the world of painting, I stumbled upon the beautiful work of German artist Theo Altenberg, which at first I actually thought was done by Cina himself (a comparison also noted by fellow design blog The Fox Is Black). His use of color is just amazing, and with so many details and textures, it is easy to find oneself getting lost in his pieces.

First discovered by the Voyager spacecraft in the early 1980s, NASA has recently released new images of the mysterious hexagon-shaped storm on Saturn’s northern pole. Taken with their Cassini Spacecraft, visible light images like this were not originally possible when Cassini arrived at Saturn back in 2004 due to the entire northern hemisphere being in winter solstice.

Size

The hexagon measures 25,000 km (15,500 mi) across, with each side being 13,800 km (8,600 mi) long. As the above image demonstrates, it’s wide enough to fit nearly four earth’s inside of it.

Composition

The hexagonal ring itself is created by a jet stream, while the center contains a spiralling vortex of clouds. Scientists say that the storm reaches speeds up to 354 km/h (220 mph).

Explanation?

In short, we can’t figure it out. Namely, scientists don’t currently understand where the storm obtains and expels its energy, or how/why it has stayed in such an organized shape for so long.

You can read more about this hexagonal goodness here and view more images here.

The Verge has posted an interview with Apple product photographer Peter Belanger. Amazing how much work goes into the process. As evidenced by this video, there’s a lot more than straight up photography going on, which is to be expected. Was a little surprised they went as far as to accentuate the chrome on the bezel but I supposed it’s par for the course with this sort of thing.

Overall I was a little underwhelmed with the process. I would have assumed Apple did this all in-house in some space that looked like a set from 2001 with airlocks and cleanroom suits.

We’ve only supported/shared a handful of Kickstarter projects in the past, I always want to do more but its best wait for some of the best ones or ones that friends do that catch our eyes. This one by Matthew Waldman from Nooka is a pretty great idea since I see soo much coffee grounds go in the trash and a compost in an office environment isn’t the best always. I’ll let the video do the talking, support below.